A £120 million project to rebuild and refurbish some of Worcestershire’s schools has been axed.

Headteachers and the county’s education chiefs have been left “extremely disappointed” by yesterday’s announcement by Education Secretary Michael Gove.

Five schools in the Wyre Forest were due for rebuilds as part of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme but the plug has been pulled on funding for those, along with another 710 projects across the country. It also means plans to upgrade schools in Worcester, Malvern and Redditch at a later date have also been binned.

We reported in your Worcester News last month how Worcestershire County Council’s cabinet had just given permission for discussions to begin with three short-listed constructors wanting to carry out the work on Stourport High School and Sixth Form Centre, Bewdley School and Sixth Form Centre, Wolverley CE Secondary School, and Baxter College along with King Charles First School and Sixth Form Centre, both KidderminsTer. The work on these was due to be completed by 2014.

A newly built 220-place special school for three to 19-year-olds and a new key stage 3/4 pupil referral unit were also planned.

Colin Weeden, Worcestershire County Council's head of raising achievement and access to learning, said: "We are obviously extremely disappointed at this announcement and the impact it will have on young people and community in the Wyre Forest.”

At a time when the Government is seeking to dramatically reduce the country’s national deficit, Mr Gove said the BSF programme, introduced by Labour in 2004, had been beset by "massive overspends, tragic delays, botched construction projects and needless bureaucracy". Worcester MP Robin Walker, Conservative, agreed with that and added while he knows schools such as Christopher Whitehead Language College in St John’s, Worcester, are keen to upgrade “schools are going to have to make the most of the facilities they have already got.”

Mr Walker said his calls for fairer funding be granted to schools in the city and across the county are even more pertinent now.

“Getting fairer funding will mean schools can do more themselves,” he said.